Finally, A Place to Call Home

There's still a fare amount of boxes stacked around, with contents waiting for their final destination, but we are home, now. Santa Fe is a gorgeous town, with friendly people and promise for a great future.

Cameron is settling into his job and likes the people he works with. It's a positive environment to be in, though it's often exhausting. Adjusting to the pace of a "real" shop, as opposed to the school setting, has been challenging, but he's getting the hang of it and has been praised for his work. They seem to be very happy with their choice for a new technician.

I'm looking for a part-time job and taking some business classes. New Mexico has tons of support available for small businesses and so I thought I'd look into what is available. The classes I'm taking are free and offered by a non-profit organization that provides support and counseling for anyone interested in starting their own business. They are general in nature, such as creating a business plan, handling finances, state and local laws and tax information, etc. It's very interesting. Held 2 times a week for 2 hours, my head is usually spinning by the time I leave the building. They pack a lot of information into those 2 hours.

The weekend before last, we took a ride to Las Vegas (New Mexico, that is). We had intended to go elsewhere, but not really knowing our new surroundings, yet, sent us off to the hometown of the Rough Riders (Roosevelt's). We spent a little time there, had lunch at a popular local restaurant, and headed back home. We'll revisit later, when we can spend more time really looking about the historical downtown area. I just wasn't up to spending the day walking around (knees, again) as the original ride was only going to take us a couple of hours and this one was a bit longer.

Last week, we went on a ride around town to explore. We like to play "Where does this road go?" and often wind up in unusual places. This time we found Hyde Park. It's a very pretty ride that took us about 3000 feet above Santa Fe. It was the perfect day for such a ride, too.


Here's a slideshow of pictures from all of this:

Click here to view!

Waiting...Waiting...and WAITING...(OOPS! I thought I posted this already)

We've been in Santa Fe for 10 days, now, and are still in a hotel. I'm anticipating hearing from the leasing agent at our proposed residence later today or tomorrow, but the wait has taken a huge tole on our finances. We started out in one hotel, but had to move to a cheaper one when we realized we would be extending this living situation longer than the expected 4 days. It didn't help that we ran into a holiday weekend, including a local festival that ran all weekend.

I didn't want to get tied into an apartment on a sight-unseen basis this time. Our last move was done that way and wound up being on the edge of a ghetto area and in a complex falling apart as fast as they could try to renovate it.

Well, with very shaky credit, and making just over the limit for most of the complexes in town (the majority are low income based housing via a state program), we have run into a lot of problems getting into a place. Thanks to my parents' assistance, it looks like we may have a home by the end of the week.

Our furry family has been weathering the ordeal as best as they can. The 12 hour ride in the U-haul truck was assisted with anti-anxiety medication, so once they settled in, they pretty much hung out in the middle seat. Once they got used to one hotel, we moved to the other, and then we will be moving to our final destination. It's been hard on them. JarJar is especially sensitive to changes so requires frequent reassurance.

We'll all be happy to finally be settled into our new home.

Santa Fe is an interesting town to get to know. Few streets are straight and none run on the usual north/south, east/west pattern. Because of the dominant Pueblo-style architecture, even chain stores look different and have been a little harder to locate than expected. It gives the area a nice charm, especially when the tallest building is 5 stories high. Greenery is abundant and hides many of the businesses along major streets. Some of the streets downtown are barely wide enough to drive a car on. I was told that they were originally mule trails, that were later paved, some are only gravel.

I'll post some pictures once we're settled. The apartment complex we're getting into is very nice and is affordable due to some great specials that are going on. Rent is $300 cheaper for a 1 year lease